For 92 years, the iconic Harlem Globetrotters have wowed popes, queens, presidents and the public with feats of athleticism, coordination and skill on the basketball court.

Today’s team features some of the most elite dunkers on the planet, a few Guinness World Record holders and the largest female roster in its history.

The Original Harlem Globetrotters are touring North America with stops in 250 cities, including Pullman and Lewiston this weekend.

Here’s some trotter trivia to mark their visit. If you take in one of the shows, don’t forget to stick around afterward for photos and autographs. The team members are known for being gracious in sharing their time with fans.

Contrary to the name “Harlem,” the Globetrotters didn’t start in New York. The team was formed in Chicago in 1926 by a man named Abe Saperstein who chose the name in an attempt to make it clear to the public this was an all-black team that traveled the world. Professional teams at the time were “whites only” and Saperstein had to work hard to book games for the group.

The Globetrotters are known for mixing comedy with sport, a tradition that started in 1939 during a regular season game when they were ahead 112 to 5. Team members clowned around to break up the boredom, and the crowd loved it. Saperstein deemed the behavior acceptable from that point forward, if the team had a strong lead in a game.

The National Basketball Association formed in 1946 as a “whites only” league that allowed game play against the all-black Globetrotters. The NBA began to draft black players in 1950, and the Globetrotters started to lose its competitive edge as bigger paychecks lured the best players to the NBA. The team’s image started to shift toward entertainment. This reached its height with cartoon shows featuring the team in the 1970s and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the 1980s.

The globetrotters began “drafting” players in 2007, although being drafted doesn’t ensure a spot on the team. This past spring, those drafted included Thor Björnsson, who portrays Gregor “The Mountain” Clegane on HBO’s “Game of Thrones.” Björnsson is the first person in the world to capture the World’s Strongest Man, Europe’s Strongest Man and the Arnold Strongman Classic in the same year. He played professional basketball in Iceland’s Division I before retiring because of an ankle injury.

Torch Geoge (Photo courtesy Original Harlem Globetrotters)

IF YOU GO

WHO: The Original Harlem Globetrotters

WHEN: 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 10

WHERE: Washington State University, Beasley Coliseum, Pullman

COST: $25 and up

Tickets available at the Beasley Coliseum box office, ticketswest.com or by calling (800) 325-SEAT.

Hodapp’s Berry and Dairy is proving otherwise. The small farm is situated on a gravel road part way up the Old Spiral Highway, only 10 minutes from downtown Lewiston. Since the farm opened in April, hundreds of people have visited to pick strawberries and buy cheeses, produce, flowers, eggs and other farm fresh offerings.

He threw some feed in a bucket, shaking it around while calling out to the goats. Dandelion and Mary immediately lost interest in the prickly lettuce they’d discovered and headed toward the fancier fare. They didn’t even notice the gate close behind them after Hodapp walked into their pen with his bucket full of bribery.

By that time, all the goats had gathered and wanted in on the party. They range in size, color and length of horns, a curious, bleating mix of long-eared Nubians and earless La Manchas.

“They have a lot of personality,” Hodapp said, after leaving the pen and locking the gate behind him.

It’s an affectionate description, considering their trouble making. Earlier this season, they provided some unwanted pruning of newly planted fruit trees. Even so, they’re a fairly mellow bunch, except for Daisy, an endearing, yet occasionally aggressive hermaphrodite who exhibits both male and female physical biology and instincts. This is not uncommon among goats.

In these hot, spent days of August, there are six goats in the herd of 11 producing about a gallon each day. This provides all of the milk and cheese Hodapp sells both directly from the farm and at the Moscow Farmers Market.

“Goat milk is called the universal milk,” Hodapp said.

Because the milk proteins and fat globules are smaller, goat milk is easier to digest, both for humans and other animals. But that’s not always convincing enough for people unaccustomed to the stuff.

“Most people are a little leery of goat milk,” Hodapp said.

Sometimes it’s simple unfamiliarity. Other times the hesitation is born of a bad experience with grocery store goat milk or cheese, which Hodapp said can stink or taste unpleasant. Not so with milk from his farm.

When it’s time to be milked, the goats push and shove for their turn in the milking shed — the feed they get while being milked must be pretty good stuff. One at a time each goat is let into the shed where she climbs up onto the milking platform and is held in place while she eats. All the goats are milked by hand rather than machine.

“It’s cleaner, it’s faster and it’s less stressful for the animals,” Hodapp said.

Once everything is clean and ready, Hodapp carefully places the milking pot so that it won’t get kicked over. A stream of milk hits the stainless steel vessel and a layer of froth grows above the rising level of milk. The milking isn’t difficult — even a farm newbie can catch on pretty quick (see accompanying video story).

As the milking continues, a loud knock comes from outside. It’s just Myrtle, Hodapp explained. She butts her head against the wall to remind him she’s ready for her turn.

Some goats can be milked in ten minutes. Others take longer. After the process is complete, milk is filtered and then chilled in a food production trailer a few yards from the milking shed. Milk destined to top crackers or eggs as a chevre is poured into a large pot, where cheese cultures and rennet are added. It’s left to sit overnight before being strained and flavored.

The goat milk and cheeses have been popular with customers, but operational costs of running a raw milk dairy and farm have been a challenge, Hodapp said. He’s part of a stringent program that tests the goats and milk to ensure consumer safety. Even with these safety structures in place to minimize risk, buying insurance for the raw milk dairy operation has been cost prohibitive for Hodapp.

Recent milk tests have indicated low-level inflammation in one or more of his goats. It’s not a bacterial infection and it isn’t a health risk to consumers, but the elevated numbers have left him unable to sell dairy products for three weeks. It’s a heavy blow for someone relying on that income.

Because of the test results, Hodapp is ramping down milk production for the fall a bit early. He’s hopeful he will be able to start back up in the spring.

But there’s more to the farm than cheese and milk. Rows of ripe strawberries drew a hundred people a week earlier this summer. The day-neutral plants produce all season if conditions are right. The hot weather puts the plants into a dormant state but they’ll start back up again once the weather cools a bit, he said.

“Right now, the pheasants are making off with most of my strawberries,” Hodapp said. He laughed and wondered if he might find a market for strawberry-fed pheasant meat this fall.

With his warm location on the hill, Hodapp has a number of heat loving crops like lavender, rosemary and grapes. “It’s absolutely perfect for grapes,” Hodapp said.

He’s focusing on seedless table grape varieties like Jupiter and Reliance that he plans to offer as a u-pick opportunity. There are 80 grape plants in the ground, though it will take a couple years before they’re at full production.

This is small farm number three for Hodapp, who has worked on a number of farms in Wisconsin where he grew up. In recent years he was a ranger at Hells Gate State Park before he began farming full time last November. His focus is on sustainable agriculture.

“For me that means farming in a way that can allow me to farm on a space indefinitely without negatively impacting soil fertility or the ecosystem,” Hodapp said.

A angler on the South Fork of the Clearwater River casts his line for a steelhead. (Steve Hanks/Inland 360)

Update: Dates for the women’s fly fishing clinic were changed and updated in this story on Aug. 14.

Most fly fishers see their sport as an art, from hand-crafted flies to the zen-like act of casting.

“Art on the Fly,” an exhibit and related series of events, will explore the reasons why.

The exhibit features historic, rare and craftsman-quality fly fishing equipment, along with traditional artwork, on display at the Lewis-Clark State College Center for Arts & History through Aug. 18.

Programs include demonstrations, children’s crafts and a panel discussion.

4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 8
A reading of Norman Maclean’s “A River Runs Through It,” by former Idaho Writer in Residence, Bill Johnson of Lewiston.

6 p.m. next Thursday, Aug. 9
Fly-tying demonstrations and reception with a showing of “A River Runs Through It” at 7 p.m. with a follow-up discussion led by Johnson. A no-host bar and light refreshments will be available.

1 p.m. Aug. 11
Second Saturday Family Art Day will feature fly-tying crafts and fly-tying demonstrations.

7 p.m. Aug. 15
The panel discussion “Women and Fly Fishing – not just a man’s sport” will focus on opportunities for women to get involved with fly fishing around the region.

In an event unrelated to the series for women who want to learn to fly fish, the Kelly Creek Flycasters and the Idaho Department of Fish and Game will co-sponsor a fly fishing clinic which includes three classroom sessions at the fish and game office on 16th Street in Lewiston, two casting lessons at the Nez Perce County Fairgrounds on Burrell Avenue in Lewiston, and a weekend fishing trip on the North Fork Clearwater River. The classroom and casting sessions will be held on Aug. 22, 29 and Sept. 5. The fishing trip will be Sept. 7-9. The clinic is designed for beginning and novice fly fishers. Young women ages 14-17 are welcome, if they are accompanied by a participating adult. The clinic will cover all aspects of fly fishing: gear, stream entomology, fish habitat, and fly casting skills. More information is available by emailing kellycreekflycasters.org or Peg Kingery atpkingery@alumni.uidaho.edu.

The center is open 11 a.m. to 4 pm. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. Admission is free, but donations are welcome.

If you’re seeing stars falling from the sky this weekend, don’t worry — it’s just the Perseids meteor shower.

The Perseids shower (pronounced PER-see-ids) is so named because it appears to be moving away from the Perseus constellation, located west of Andromeda.

According to Jason Barnes, associate professor of physics at the University of Idaho, meteors or “shooting stars” are little bits of interplanetary dust that collide with Earth. For ordinary meteors, the collision is at a high rate of speed: about 19 miles per second.

“At that speed you could get from Moscow, Idaho, to Lewiston, Idaho, in two seconds,” Barnes said. “Much faster than driving.”

When these dust particles hit the Earth’s atmosphere at that speed, there is air resistance. The friction causes the particles to slow down and heats them up to glowing-hot temperatures, making them visible from Earth’s upper atmosphere even though they are only the size of a grain of sand.

The Perseids are so prominent because they move even faster than typical meteors, entering Earth’s atmosphere at around 36 miles per second.

“It’s more like a head-on collision because the comet is orbiting somewhat backwards,” Barnes said.

The Perseids meteor shower occurs in mid-August every year, when the Earth moves through a particular part of its orbit around the sun, leading us right across the orbit of Swift-Tuttle, Barnes said. He describes the comet as “a dirty snowball” about 16 miles across.

The dust that forms the meteor show, according to Matt Hedman, assistant professor of physics at the University of Idaho, is from the tail of Swift-Tuttle. The dust is launched into space as the comet slowly circles the sun and its ice is vaporized.

“Every time the Earth gets close to Swift-Tuttle’s orbit,” Hedman said, “it plows through this dust cloud, and the dust particles it encounters do completely burn up in our atmosphere.”

The Perseids shower also is known for its fireballs, which are superbright meteors lasting for several seconds, formed by a “big” piece of comet about the size of a grape. “Unlike the smaller sand-sized ones, you can frequently see some color in them, and they will sometimes start to get broken apart by the friction with the air, leading to them shooting parts off or exploding like a firework,” said Barnes. “They’re rare but super impressive if you get to see one.”

Barnes and Hedman recommend a dark, clear view of the sky, far from buildings and preferably on a hill, to view the Perseids meteor shower. It’s most easily seen after midnight and before dawn. Hedman’s advice is to bring a deck chair and let your eyes adjust to the dark.

Scientists are predicting a show of around 60 meteors per hour this year, one per minute.

“Your eye is great at seeing motion and should pick up meteors across most of the sky this way,” Barnes said. “They only last for about one second for most of them. I’ve found that it’s useless to point them out to your companions as by the time you blurt it out, the thing’s already gone. But hopefully they were looking up too and saw the same one that you did.”

Barnes and Hedman say earthlings should not be concerned about pieces of rock falling from the sky.

“They’re slowed down to terminal velocity in the upper atmosphere,” Barnes said. “So by the time that they get down here, they’re just falling little pieces of sand and will pose no threat to anyone or anything down here on the surface of Earth.”

While modern people might see a swastika, the “Eagle Feather Bonnet with Trailer,” on display at Nez Perce National Historic Park at Spalding, contains an ancient symbol sometimes called a whirlwind. In Nez Perce culture it was often used to represent the movement of the stars and as a sign of protection.(Photo Nez Perce National Historical Park/National Park Service)

“Most people know this symbol in its modern context,” said Park Ranger Kate Kunkel-Patterson. “Unfortunately, that’s a negative context.”

The symbol, which the rangers call a “whirlwind,” is much older than Nazism and has a number of meanings. In Nez Perce culture, it can represent how the Big Dipper changes position in the sky throughout the year, said Kunkel-Patterson. It also was a symbol of protection, often found on objects owned by men who traveled far away to hunt or fight. “Almost a reminder of home in relation to that star formation in the sky,” she said.

The symbol is one of several visual representations of the stars in Nez Perce culture, a topic to be explored at a night sky event Saturday at the park.

The program begins at 8 p.m. in the visitor’s center auditorium with a program about how the stars relate to Nez Perce culture. Kunkel-Patterson also will discuss how Big Hole National Battlefield in Montana, one of the park’s 38 sites, is under consideration to be named a dark sky park. Dark sky parks and preserves are designated places where light pollution does not impede one’s view of the night sky.

After 9 p.m., the program will move outside for viewing the Perseid Meteor Shower. In one Nez Perce story, a boy shoots an arrow into the sky and a shooting star returns, bringing his people fire. It’s one way meteors and comets are woven into the fabric of the culture, Kunkel-Patterson said.

Saturday night marks the peak of this year’s meteor shower. David Eberle, a NASA Solar System Ambassador and Clarkston elementary school teacher, will present a brief program about astronomy and meteors.

The meteor shower will be visible to the naked eye after dark, but people also can bring binoculars and telescopes, along with blankets and lawn chairs for seating. In addition to the programs, the park will offer a special “Night Sky” Junior Ranger activity for kids. The museum and gift shop will remain open for the event.

Former scouts, youth group kids and neighborhood-wandering children of decades gone by remember the thrill of playing big, rowdy games outside at night.

But if the rules of those classic games have slipped your memory, never fear: Inland 360 is here to help.

You don’t need much to relive your glory days or introduce the next generation to the joy of running screaming through the dark while a shadowy figure chases close behind. Find yourself a park, play field, forest meadow or big backyard with ample places to hide (and neighbors who aren’t easily annoyed).

Set boundaries and stick to them, and remember to stay off streets and away from parked cars and driveways.
Flashlights and a buddy system are essential for littler kids, but teens (and, admit it, adults) love the rush of stumbling around in the dark alone.

Memory refreshed? Grab some friends and head out under the stars to play.Sardines

Hide-and-seek is fun at night, but this reverse version ramps up the challenge. Whoever is It must hide alone, while all the other players count. At the end of the countdown, the players spread out in search of It. Players who find It quietly squeeze into the hiding spot — which leads to plenty of silent(ish) laughter and awkward squishing. Whoever is last to find the group is It next round.
Variation: The hiders — whether the initial It or the whole pack — can move locations.

Kick the Can

There are several opinions on what, exactly, constitutes a game of Kick the Can, but it usually involves a good-sized can (tin for that good-old-fashioned clunky sound) and a relatively open space with a few places to duck behind. The person who is It counts while players hide. After time is up, players try to sneak back to the center to kick the can before It tags them and sends them to a nearby “jail.” Whenever a player successfully kicks the can, everyone in jail is liberated. The game ends when It manages to round up the whole group.
Variation: Possible alterations to this game are endless, so grab a can and get creative.

Ghost in the Graveyard

One person is designated the Ghost. Players gather at a designated home base, then chant as the Ghost dashes off to hide: “One o’clock … two o’clock …” all the way up to midnight, at which point everyone shouts, “I hope I don’t see a ghost tonight” (or something similar — check Google or consult your favorite senior citizen for more elaborate rhymes). Then, players scatter in search of the Ghost. The first player to spot the Ghost screams “GHOST IN THE GRAVEYARD!” and everyone else bolts for home base. Whoever the Ghost tags first becomes the Ghost in the next round.
Variation: Aside from the countdown and “ghost in the graveyard” shout, try playing as quietly as possible for extra spookiness.

Capture the Flag

Playing this classic at night might get too intense for smaller kids, but it’s perfect for teens and adults with a competitive streak. The group splits into two teams and divides the playing territory in half — marked clearly, if possible, to avoid disputes. Each team is given a flag (usually a handkerchief, scarf or small object) to place somewhere in their territory. Teams then strategize how to sneak onto the other side and grab the opposing team’s flag without letting their own be lost. Any player caught and tagged in enemy territory is sent to a previously designated “jail” and can only be liberated with a tag from a teammate. Whichever team successfully gets the opposing team’s flag across the center line wins.
Variation: Replacing tagging with projectiles like Nerf balls, water balloons or paintballs.

Jan VogtmanChief Timothy Park“Sunset on the Snake”Watercolor and Pen$150

By JENNIFER K. BAUER

jkbauer@inland360.com

There’s something romantic and picturesque about an artist working outdoors, attempting to capture a grand vista with a mere brush and canvas.

However, plein air, or painting outdoors, intimidates many artists because nature won’t stand still. The light is always changing; one moment is never the same as the one that came before.

That’s why every artist should do it, said artist Kelsey Grafton. “It changes the way you see.”

Each year Grafton oversees “Rivers & Vines,” an annual plein air competition presented by the Lewis-Clark State College Center for Arts & History. Over the course of a week last month, new and veteran artists painted at locations around the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley in all kinds of weather. Paint-outs began on a rainy morning at the Clearwater Canyon Cellars vineyard in Lewiston. Another day, artists saw dawn from the Vista House on the Old Spiral Highway. A night was spent at Chief Timothy Park capturing evening and morning scenes beside the river.

John KirklandVista House at Point A“View from the Top”Oil$300

Artists will show the works they created in an exhibit opening with a reception at 5 tonight at the center. Competition winners will be announced at 6 p.m., and juried cash prizes of $500, $300 and $200 will be awarded.

Artists interested in plein air don’t have to wait until next year’s “Rivers & Vines.” This fall, the Colfax Arts Council will present “Inspired Palouse,” a competition inspired by plein air that is open to all media, including fabric art, sculpture and photography. While works must have an open-air perspective, they need not be completed on location outdoors. Instead, they must focus on a subject from within a 75-mile radius of Colfax. The council will award more than $500 in prizes to top juried winners. Submissions are due by Sept. 29. More information is available by emailing inspiredpalouse@gmail.com.

Ruby, left, and Hannah Johnson-Leung ride ahead of mom Jennifer during the Fondo Ride from Moscow to Troy Saturday, July 15.

By JENNIFER K. BAUER

jkbauer@inland360.com

A Gran Fondo is to cyclists what a marathon is to runners, a personal challenge against a natural backdrop.

Gran Fondo roughly translates to big ride and is a long-distance cycling event that originated in Italy. Saturday’s Fondo on the Palouse is not competitive. Instead, it will highlight the beauty of the Palouse terrain to cyclists of all levels, from children to Italian pro-riders.

This is the second year of the fondo, started by T-Jay Clevenger, owner of Paradise Creek Bicycles in Moscow, as a way to showcase the region to cyclists, “when we have our most amazing weather and the beds are empty because the college kids are gone.”

Fondo on the Palouse has four routes that build upon each other, ranging in length from 15 to 100 miles. Two shuttles will cruise the course throughout the day, transporting people to various finish lines or back to Moscow. Nine aid stations run by area nonprofit groups will provide food and drink along the courses, which all begin in downtown Moscow at Paradise Creek Bicycles and include:

The Family Fondo: A casual 15-mile ride along the Latah Trail ending in Troy for a pancake feed. Starts at 10 a.m., $25.

The Latah/Chipman Fondo: A 50-mile route that does not involve traffic but instead follows the paved Latah and Chipman Trails. Starts at 10 a.m., $65.

The Potlatch Fondo: A 50-mile route that passes through Troy, Deary and Princeton, ending in Potlatch, where Potlatch Days will be happening. Starts at 9 a.m., $65.

The Moscow Fondo: A 100-mile route that begins and ends in Moscow and goes through Troy, Deary, Princeton, Potlatch, Colfax and Pullman. Starts at 7 a.m., $75.

A 4 p.m. celebration at the Church of the Nazarene in Moscow will conclude the event, Clevenger said. Besides a T-shirt, color-changing water bottle and other swag, those who register for the fondo will receive a discount coupon for a ticket to Saturday night’s Rendezvous in the Park music festival.

The Palouse fondo has attracted a group of professional Italian speed riders, including Giuseppe Fonzi, who competed in the Giro D’italia 2018, an Italian race second to the Tour de France for cyclists.

“They are national heroes in Italy,” said Clevenger, who will hold a free community reception for people to meet them at 5:30 p.m. Friday at Paradise Creek Bicycles. “Italy rivals France in personality for wanting to be a bike-centric culture.”

Proceeds from this year’s fondo will benefit participating nonprofits and the Latah Trail Foundation whose mission is to preserve the historic Moscow-Arrow railroad corridor for non-motorized recreational and transportation uses. Proceeds from last year’s event helped the foundation pave another 3 miles of the Bear Creek Canyon Trail, Clevenger said.

For starters, it has a lake with at least two public access points. One is a boat launch operated by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. The second is at Liberty Lake Regional Park. It has a swimming beach, which doubles as a jumping off point for paddleboarders and kayakers.

An eight-mile hike at Liberty Lake Regional Park features a different ecosystem almost every mile. The trail goes alongside a marsh that turns into a stream at higher elevations, enters a cedar grove and reaches 3,400 feet above sea level.

Plus, Liberty Lake boasts more than 10 independently owned eateries or regional chains serving everything from Asian specialties to free-range chicken. And, since it’s a little more than a two-hour drive from the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley and Palouse, it can be a day or overnight trip.

Here are some pointers on how to make best use of your time in Liberty Lake.

THINGS TO DO

HIKE

The Liberty Creek Trail at Liberty Lake Regional Park is a spring opener of sorts to the hiking season because it’s often doable early in the season without special equipment. Expect to encounter hikers walking dogs and toting infants on their backs, pursuing adventures that match their ability levels. Younger children may not want to climb all the way to the summit but the first two relatively flat miles offer a lot — beaver dams in a marshy area and bridges crossing Liberty Creek. To Liberty Creek Falls is a 6-mile, out-and-back route for moderate hikers. Ignore the warning sign in the cedar grove about severe trail damage. The trail is still easy to navigate past the grove. The most gung-ho hiker can cover the entire eight mile loop, which tops out near Camp Hughes Cabin at 3,400 feet above sea level. The elevation change between the parking lot and the cabin is 1,300 feet.

From Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day weekend, the park’s entrance fee is $2 per person.

ZIP LINE

Mica Moon Zip Tours offers a 2 ½ hour tour on Mica Peak on a course with eight zip lines and two hikes. Depending on age, cost ranges from $85 to $96 per person. Tours run from around April to October. Customers get occasional glimpses of hawks, deer, elk and moose while soaring over a mountain stream, a private valley and historic moonshine camps where illicit booze was produced during Prohibition. (www.micamoon.com)

BICYCLE

An entrance to the Spokane River Centennial Trail, with parking and bathrooms, is

north of Interstate 90 Exit 296 on North Harvard Road. The Spokane River Centennial Trail connects to North Idaho Centennial Trail at the Idaho state line. The trail system extends east to Spokane, north to Nine Mile Falls, and west to Higgens Point through Coeur d’Alene. A printed trail map of the Washington section can be purchased for $5.75 at spokanecentennialtrail.org. The Coeur d’Alene Chamber of Commerce gives away free copies of the Idaho side at 105 N. First St. in Coeur d’Alene.

GOLF

Three Liberty Lake courses give golfers a place to tee off against the stunning backdrop of Mount Spokane and Mica Peak.

Liberty Lake Golf Course, 18 holes, tee times at (509) 255-6233

MeadowWood Golf Course, 18 holes, tee times at (509) 255-9539

Trailhead Golf Course, nine holes, tee times at (509) 928-3484

WATER CRAFT

Vessels of all types can launch from Liberty Lake Boat Launch. The Spokane River Recreation Area is north of Interstate 90 Exit 296 on North Harvard Road. It gives rafters, kayakers and inner-tubers access to the Spokane River. Expect rapids of Class 2 and lower, depending on water flows. Floating downstream to the next take out point at Barker Bridge takes roughly 1 hour 30 minutes, depending on conditions.

Celebrate children’s good behavior after a hike or bicycle ride at Just Chillin Eats and Sweets. Adults can reward themselves at Liberty Lake Wine Cellars. For Asian food in a sit-down setting, try Ding How Restaurant. Other popular venues: Cork House or Hay J’s Bistro, where reservations are recommended. Those choices are for the crowd who understands the subtleties of wine pairings and likes to check the credentials of the growers who raised what’s on their plate.

WHERE TO STAY

The adventurous can camp at Liberty Lake Regional Park. It has 17 recreational vehicle hookups with water and power, 11 tent sites, and four cabins. The park has bathrooms, showers, and a central waste station for sewage disposal. Reservations are available online at https://secure.itinio.com/spokane.

Other choices are Quality Inn & Suites Liberty Lake and Best Western Plus Liberty Lake. The ambitious and adventurous can stay in Spokane or Coeur d’Alene and make Liberty Lake a destination on a bicycle day-trip. Spokane is 17 miles to the west. Coeur d’Alene is 18 miles to the east.

Williams may be contacted at ewilliam@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2261.

]]>https://inland360.com/other/2018/06/overlooked-liberty-lake-combines-outdoor-adventure-with-city-pleasures/feed/0If you build it they will shred: Palouse skate park opens after 17 yearshttps://inland360.com/sports/2018/05/if-you-build-it-they-will-shred-palouse-skate-park-opens-after-17-years/
https://inland360.com/sports/2018/05/if-you-build-it-they-will-shred-palouse-skate-park-opens-after-17-years/#respondWed, 30 May 2018 00:21:37 +0000https://inland360.com/?p=1067835

Aaron Flansburg, director of the Palouse Skate Park, does a backside slash grind at the park he started planning 17 years ago. It opens June. 2.

In the movie “Field of Dreams,” a voice tells an Iowa farmer, “If you build it, they will come.” The farmer takes it as an instruction to build a baseball diamond in his corn field.

Seventeen years ago, a Palouse wheat farmer had a similar dream, a skatepark in his rural hometown.

The 10,000-square-foot space is a privately funded, privately operated, nonprofit park that will be open to the public. Flansburg was 21 when he started work on it. Today he’s 38, “but I still skate,” he said in an interview on a recent day when rain was keeping him from seeding his fields.

While the bowl in the park was built by a professional crew, virtually everything else was built by Flansburg, his friends and other volunteers. It took years to raise the money to build the park. Besides donations and fundraisers, Flansburg’s band, Random Noise, played special events like Haunted Palouse. As the park evolved, volunteers tested it out, made changes to the design and added features.

“The way we built it was so unusual. There are other skater-built, DIY parks in the country, but to this size, scale and complexity, there are very few,” he said. “If something comes up and we don’t like the way it skates, we change it. I guess that’s one of the advantages of taking forever to build it.”

The park is named for the local resident who donated the land upon which it sits. It has an unusual shape: linear instead of square. In addition to the bowl created by an international skatepark specialist who helped design and construct Burnside Skatepark in Portland, other features include a skatable amphitheater with three long, curved steps and a smaller bowl he and other volunteers call the koi pond. There are street features like Jersey barriers, stairs, ledges and handrails and an “unreasonably large pole jam made from an old grain auger,” said Flansburg. A pole jam is a a maneuver skateboarders do over a bent pole.

Volunteers will continue to maintain the park after it opens, taking out the trash and monitoring activity there.

“It’s not a city parks department project. The responsibility is ours,” Flansburg said.

“I’m really excited to skate and play and get out of town, instead of just work every spare second. I think that goes for all the folks that have volunteered,” he said. “I feel like I need to say some thank yous.”

Here’s a virtual tour of the Palouse Skatepark from the park’s website.